Barleyworld

Brought to you by the OSU Barley project – a team of barley enthusiasts dedicated to generating fundamental knowledge about barley, ensuring the availability barley genetic resources, and encouraging barley use and consumption.

Researchers at Oregon State University (OSU) are giving an ancient grain a new life: this barley is naked, but not in an indecent way.

Naked barley has been around for 10,000 years, the result of a natural mutation that was selected at the dawn of agriculture. But there weren’t naked varieties adapted to the Pacific Northwest. That’s where Buck comes in.

Barley has always played second fiddle to hops and yeast when it comes to flavoring beer. Now the grain is ready for its solo.

In two studies published in the Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, a research team led by Oregon State University found notable differences in the taste of beers malted from barley varieties reputed to have flavor qualities.